Unipoint Electric shaves two thirds off development cycles with PLM

Taiwan-based automotive aftermarket firm Unipoint Electric Manufacturing claims to have cut its product development cycles by more than 60% since implementing PLM (product lifecycle management) software just two years ago. The firm, which makes starter motors, alternators, air-conditioning parts and wiper blades, also says that it, and its suppliers, have increased use of standard parts, reduced design errors, and improved production efficiency. “Providing high quality products to our customers, reducing product costs by 20%, and taking up to 20% market share in the global automotive aftermarket before 2010 are the key goals at Unipoint,” says Hsu Kwang-Yang, general manager, Unipoint Electric Manufacturing. “PLM technology … is helping us to achieve these objectives… We exchange information with our suppliers immediately, and this is the most effective way to streamline our product development. “Since the implementation of IBM PLM Solutions, we have reduced product development time of auto parts by two-thirds and strengthened our market position.” Unipoint implemented IBM PLM Solutions with Dassault Systems Catia V5 for virtual product development and Smarteam for collaborative PLM. Specifically, Catia V5’s ‘knowledgeware’ has been instrumental in allowing Unipoint to create standard parts. For example, although gears and springs are different for every car model, Unipoint engineers just change a parameter and Catia automatically creates the part. It will be correct, needing no rework or modification. Meanwhile, Smarteam, which is web-based, enables Unipoint to collaborate across company sites and with suppliers to share, view and manage all product data across thousands of parts.